Representative Seymour Halpern

Seymour Halpern (November 19, 1913 – January 10, 1997) was an American politician and long-serving Republican Representative from New York who served in the United States Congress from 1959 to 1973. Born in New York City on November 19, 1913, he grew up in a Republican family, a political orientation that would shape his public life even as his views placed him among the most liberal members of his party. He graduated from Richmond Hill High School in Queens and, while still a young man, began working as a newspaper reporter in New York and Chicago from 1931 to 1933, gaining early exposure to public affairs and urban political life.

Halpern pursued higher education at Seth Low Junior College of Columbia University, which he attended from 1932 to 1934. After his brief career in journalism, he entered the insurance business, an occupation he would maintain in various forms alongside his political activities. His early professional years thus combined practical business experience with an understanding of the press and public communication, skills that would later inform both his legislative work and his post-congressional career.

Halpern’s formal entry into public service began in New York City government. In 1937 he served as a staff assistant to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, one of the city’s most prominent reform mayors, and from 1938 to 1940 he was an assistant to the President of the New York City Council. He was elected to the New York State Senate in 1941 and served continuously until 1954, sitting in the 163rd through the 169th New York State Legislatures. During his state legislative tenure, he also served as a member of the Temporary State Commission to Revise the Civil Service Laws from 1952 to 1954, reflecting his engagement with governmental reform and administrative efficiency. In 1954 he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for election to the 84th Congress. Concurrently, he remained active in the private sector as vice president, and later chairman of the board, of the Insurist Corporation of America from 1948 to 1959, and he served on the Mayor’s Committee on Courts from 1956 to 1958.

Halpern was elected as a Republican to the 86th United States Congress and took office on January 3, 1959, beginning the first of seven consecutive terms in the House of Representatives. He served in the 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st, and 92nd Congresses, holding office from January 3, 1959, to January 3, 1973. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, encompassing the civil rights movement, the Great Society programs, and major debates over social welfare and health care. As a member of the House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his New York constituents, contributing to the legislative process throughout his seven terms in office.

Within the Republican Party, Halpern was known as one of the most liberal Republicans in the House of Representatives, frequently receiving endorsements from labor unions and the Liberal Party of New York. He consistently supported landmark civil rights and social welfare legislation. He voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished the poll tax in federal elections, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In line with many of his fellow New York Republicans, he supported the creation of Medicare and later described his co-sponsorship of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Medicare as two of his proudest achievements in Congress. He was also one of only thirteen Republicans in the House to support the Food Stamp Act of 1964, underscoring his commitment to social welfare programs.

Despite his liberal voting record, Halpern remained a Republican throughout his career and declined suggestions that he switch to the Democratic Party. His stance placed him alongside other prominent New York liberal Republicans such as Jacob Javits, John Lindsay, and Kenneth Keating. In 1964 he refused to support Senator Barry Goldwater’s nomination as the Republican candidate for President, reflecting his opposition to the party’s conservative turn at the national level. On January 26, 1971, he joined fellow Republicans F. Bradford Morse, Charles Adams Mosher, and Ogden Reid as one of seventy-four representatives to support the House version of Senator Edward Kennedy’s Health Security Act, a proposal for universal health coverage in the United States through a government-administered program. When redistricting combined his congressional district with that of Representative Lester Wolff, Halpern chose not to run for re-election in 1972, bringing his fourteen-year congressional career to a close on January 3, 1973.

After leaving Congress, Halpern returned to private life and worked in public relations, drawing on his long experience in politics, communication, and business. On the personal front, he married Barbara Olsen in 1959; the couple had no children and remained married until his death. Seymour Halpern died in Southampton, New York, on January 10, 1997, at the age of 83. He was buried at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in the Glendale section of Queens, New York. His wife, Barbara Olsen Halpern, survived him until her death in 2015.